LECTURE 4. LEARNING AND TEACHING PROCESSES   4.1 The teaching process 4.2 Presentations and explanations 4.3 Practice activities.

The teaching process The process of teaching a foreign language is a complex one: as with many other subjects, it has necessarily to be broken down into components for purposes of study. There are three such components: (1) presenting and explaining new material; (2) providing practice; and (3) testing.

Language learner’s don’t always need teachers Language learner’s don’t always need teachers. They may absorb new material unconsciously (to ‘pick up’ a language by living and communicating in a place where the language is used, this is known as immersion), or semi-consciously (through exposure to comprehensible and personally meaningful speech or writing).

Presentation and explanations It would seem fairly obvious that in order for our students to learn something new (a text, a new word, how to perform a task) they need to be first able to perceive and understand it. One of the teacher's jobs is to mediate such new material so that it appears in a form that is most accessible for initial learning.

What happens in an effective presentation? Attention The learners are alert, focusing their attention on the teacher and/or the material to be learnt, and aware that something is coming that they need to take in. You need to make sure that learners are in fact attending; it helps if the target material is perceived as interesting in itself.

What happens in an effective presentation? Perception The learners see or hear the target material clearly. This means not only making sure that the material is clearly visible and/or audible in the first place; it also usually means repeating it in order to give added opportunities for, or reinforce perception. Finally, it helps to get some kind of response from the learners in order to check that they have in fact perceived the material accurately: repetition, for example, or writing.

What happens in an effective presentation? Understanding The learners understand the meaning of the material being introduced, and its connection with other things they already know. So you may need to illustrate, make links with previously learnt material, explain. A response from the learners, again, can give you valuable feedback on how well they have understood: a restatement of concepts in their own words, for example.

What happens in an effective presentation? Short-term memory The learners need to take the material into short-term memory: to remember it that is, until later in the lesson, when you and they have an opportunity to do further work to consolidate learning.

Explanations and instructions One particular kind of explanation that is very important in teaching is instruction: the directions that are given to introduce a learning task which entails some measure of independent student activity.

Guidelines on giving effective explanations and instructions Prepare Make sure you have the class's full attention Present the information more than once Be brief Illustrate with examples Get feedback

Practice activities Practice can be roughly defined as the rehearsal of certain behaviours with the objective of consolidating learning and improving performance. Language learners can benefit from being told, and understanding, facts about the language only up to a point: ultimately, they have to acquire an intuitive, automatized knowledge which will enable ready and fluent comprehension and self-expression. And such knowledge is normally brought about through consolidation of learning through practice.

Learning a skill The process of learning a skill by means of a course of instruction has been defined as a three-stage process: verbalization, automatization and autonomy.

Characteristics of effective language practice Validity Pre-learning Volume Success-orientation Heterogeneity Teacher assistance Interest

Discussion questions What is a teacher for in language teaching process? Is teaching process equal to the learning process? If you were a teacher, how would you present/explain/get feedback?

Task for Individual Work of a Student Prepare a model lesson on one of the methods you have presented.